The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-05-20
CLEANING THEM OUT.
Captain Porter and Lieutenant Far
ragut Among Cuban Pirates.


Among the "reminiscences Of sixty
years Of service IN the navy, with which
the late Admiral + arragut used Occas-
fonally to entertain us youngsters,
was an account of one of his early
cruises in the West Indies against the
pirates that, even as late as 1928, were
very troublesome in those waters.
These miscreants, the successors of the
atrociOus buccaneers" lowered about
the smallest and least known harbors,
sounds and lagOons along the southern
coast of Cuba. They infested also Hay
Ii, Porto Rico and some of the lesser
islands. Most of their vessels were small
craft of light draught capable of being
propelled, in calm weather, by means
of sweeps, or long oars, and of enter
ing shallow bays, inaccessible to the
heavy English and American men-of-
war. The havoc wrought by them on
our commerce in that quarter was con-
siderable.
Our Government therefore fitted out
and put in commission a number Of
light vessels-several of them small
schoOners and barges-whIch received
the name Of the Mosquito Fleet, for the
express purpose of ferreting out the
freebOoters. Some of these small war
ships received characteristic names;
there was the Beagle, the Weasel, the
Fox, the Ferret and the Greyhound.
The last-named was a schooner of
eighty-fve tons burden. She was a
rapid sailer, and carried for armament
one long pivot gun and two eighteen
Founders. The other vessels were of
similar tonnage and outfit. OF the
barges two had been christened the
Mosquito and the Gallinipper, respect
lively.
Farragut, then a Second Lieutenant
and twenty-one years of age, was as
signed to the Greyhound, commanded
by Captain John Porter. The entire
fOtilla was under the command of Com
modore Porter, with whom young Far
ragut had served as a MILDLY at the
early age of ten years on board the
famous old frigate Essex. The little
fleet of pirate-hunters sailed from New
York on the afternoon of the twelfth of
February, 1928, with heavy northeast
gale on its quarter. The Greyhound
soon became separated from the other
vessels, and arrived in the Mona Pas
sage, between Hayi and Porto Rico,
twelve days after them.
The delay led to an encounter with a
British war-vessel, the commander of
which suspected her to be pirate yes
sci, sailing under false colors. Captain
Porter returned fire when shot was
fired across his bow. At this piece of
audacity, the British commander laugh
ingly declared that ''nO one but a Yam
kee would have fired like that's" and
upon finding that his surmise was cor
rect, sent an apology and a present of
fruit to Porter.
Quite different was the conduct of
the Spanish authorities at the West In
dian ports, who had failed to put down
piracy in their own waters and were
obliged to rely on a foreign Power to
do so. AS the Fox was entering the
harbOr of San Juan, she was fired upon
from one of the forts, although the
American flag was flying conspicuous
ly, and her commander was fatally
wounded. For this outrage only a very
insincere apology was ever rendered.
Moreover, so well warned were the
pirates of the whereabouts and move
memts of the American cruisers that
for some months no captures were
made.
At length the two barges, Gallinip-
per and Mosquito. under command OF
Lieutenant Watson, with crews amount
ing altogether to thirty-one men, sur
prised large piratical schooner on the
a., fl,o -,
mounted a nine-pounder brass gun,
and carried a well-armed crew of more
than sixty men; she was owned and
commanded by a noted desperate,
who, for his many murders and other
acts of atrocity, had received the nick
name of "Diablito," or Little Satan.
Lieutenant Watson, a plucky young
officer, had no sooner made out the
character Of the schooner, than he de-
termined to capture it at all hazards.
Accordingly, the two barges advanced
to the attack.
Diablito, confident in the superior
numbers of his men, and in his cannon
which he had charged with grape-shot,
hoisted the black flag of his nefarious
profession. and shouted defiance to the
approaching blue-jackets, promising to
blow them all out of existence before
they could reach the side of his yes
sci.
The Americans bore down on him
with long. steady pull at their oars
the Mosquito veering off little from
the Gallinipper, so that the threatened
discharge of grape might rake only one
of them. The piratical schooner lay
in seven or eight feet of water and only
few hundred yards off the shore.
The Gallinipper, on her after quar-.
ter, had approached within musket.
shot, when Diablito, training has nine,
FOUNDER full on the barge, discharged
il. But the grape merely cut away
some of the oars. and wounded two mer
slightly The progress Of the barge
was not even arrested for a moment
With a ringing cheer the mea-of-war'
men dashed forward, and the smoke o.
cannon rising, the Rstonished freeboot
ers beheld the barge dsrting up under
the schooner's stern. Seized with
panic, though ourann boring the Amer
leans two 70 one, they did not wall
even to strike a single blow In defense
of their ship, but leaped overheard like
a flock Of sheep and made for the shore,
The marines from the GallinippeI
jumped aboard and captured the
schooner without resistancei while the